Files open but don't display?

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
1

I upgraded to Scrivener 3 from the most up to date version of 2 - I’m running High Sierra on a Mac Airbook.

When I go to open file and double click, it goes through the motions like it’s going to open the file… and then nothing happens. Occasionally I can click into the desktop and then back into Scrivener and the file will be open. But usually there’s nothing there.

Perhaps understandably, this is freaking me out a little bit.

My backups are set to my Dropbox, which is where I store my files as well because I also use the iOS app frequently.

What the heck is going on here?

2

Ditto.
In my case, after about 3o mini. or so file open and display. I think it is too long to wait. :frowning:

3

We have encountered a small number of cases like this, but haven’t been able to pin down a common thread.

In some cases, the project appears in the Window menu and can be loaded from there.

In some cases, but not all, moving the project from the Dropbox folder to a local folder helps.

As I said, we haven’t been able to find a common thread, so any information you can provide would be helpful.

Katherine

4

Same issue. High Sierra, Macbook Air, saved on Dropbox since I use iOS as well.

Sometimes they don’t open at all. I have to try over and over and maybe something happens maybe not. Regardless of trying from the “Open Recent” on the Project Templates window , “Open Recent” in the pulldown File menu, or using “Open” in the pulldown file menu. Its basically unusable at this point.

Also, if I use the “Open” button at the bottom right of the project templates window, the Project templates window closes, but no file select window opens. I’ve done a hard restart, I’ve reinstalled. Nothing. It is unusable software…

5

Same problem, Sierra on MacBook Air. Double click, looks like it’s going to open then doesn’t.

I don’t have patience, so I click Scrivener icon again and it opens with warning that the project isn’t in a recommended save location because the .scriv project is inside its own automatic backups folder.

I was very confused because I hadn’t set anything up yet. Automatic backups were set to save to my desktop.

Once I created a backups folder on the desktop and routed the automatic backups to it, Scrivener opened fine.

6

Does moving the project out of Dropbox resolve the issue? Dropbox seems to be a common thread among people having this problem.

Katherine

7

Same problem here using MacBook Air but I am not using Dropbox. My files are resident on a USB drive. It looks like it opens but I have nothing showing until I click on the Scrivener icon on the menu bar. Then it opens up. I agree it was a little nerve wracking at first, hoping my project was not lost!

8

We do not recommend opening a Scrivener project directly from a USB drive. Do you see the same behavior if the project is saved to the local disk?

Katherine

9

I am having the same problem, running High Sierra on a MacBook Pro. I can only open files by navigating to them through Finder and double clicking. My Scrivener files are saved locally.

10

Please make sure Scrivener’s automatic backups are NOT saved to the same folder as your live projects, which you can do from the Scrivener -> Preferences -> Backups pane.

Katherine

11

Thanks, Katherine! Moving the backup files solved the problem.
Jay

12

Not using certain features is not a useful fix for me. Ill try moving backups

13

Since your previous post, we 've narrowed things down quite a bit.

Placing your live projects in the same folder as your automatic backups is a bad idea for a number of reasons, and Scrivener 3 issues a warning message telling you so. Unfortunately, this message can under some circumstances fail to appear due to a Mac OS bug, causing the project to be stuck, waiting for you to clear an invisible warning message.

Meanwhile, an oversight on our part caused the default backup location to be pre-filled to point to the same location where projects were last created, leading to the aforementioned warning message.

Moving your automatic backup location to a folder other than your live projects is a good idea anyway, and will resolve this issue. The responsible bugs are also addressed in Scrivener 3.0.1, released last week.

Katherine

14

I moved my backups folder, and so far everything is working. Mac OS version is usable, iOS version is linked via dropbox. Thanks for bug hunting!

15

Katherine,

Any of the solutions solve my problem.
I use High Sierra and save my files on dropbox.

I move the file out of Dropbox, change the root of back up by going to preference/backup tab/choose the new folder on desktop. If I have to do anything else tell me please.
I already reboot the computer, upgraded it, and install scrivener again.

Did I loose my file? What if I send it to you and see if you can revive it and email it back to me?

New insight: this message appears when i try to open this particular file:

“(The project at “/Users/Massi/Downloads/Autumn.scriv” seems to be in use by Massi on massi’s-MacBook-Pro). If the same project is opened more than once at the same time, data could be lost.
It is also possible that this project didn’t finish closing properly the last time it was used or was copied from another machine while in use.
Choose ‘Make a Copy’ to make a copy of the project and work from that, or ‘Continue’ if you are certain that this project cannot already be open anywhere else.)”

I made a copy of course, and I press “continue”. The latter never stop the rainbow-cursor from turning&turning.

Can’t wait to hear from you,
Massi

16

I’m sorry, I’m not sure I understand the issue.

What version of Scrivener do you have?

What happens when you try to open an existing project?

Katherine

17

[Fortunately, I could solve the problem.

I could not open one file in particular - and several others with delay - because the name of the file was in Farsi, lets say unrecognisable language to name a file.

So, my brother who is using scrivener too, could guess it. He told me how to go to backup folder, find one before the last time, change the name of file to english and miraculously it opened - it didn’t open before I change the name.

The main file, even though I’ve change the name to english did not open at all. I lost about 5 pages of translation - that is my job - but the backup, after changing the name of the file to english, opened.]

Katherine,

Any of the solutions solve my problem.
I use High Sierra and save my files on dropbox.

I move the file out of Dropbox, change the root of back up by going to preference/backup tab/choose the new folder on desktop. If I have to do anything else tell me please.
I already reboot the computer, upgraded it, and install scrivener again.

Did I loose my file? What if I send it to you and see if you can revive it and email it back to me?

New insight: this message appears when i try to open this particular file:

“(The project at “/Users/Massi/Downloads/Autumn.scriv” seems to be in use by Massi on massi’s-MacBook-Pro). If the same project is opened more than once at the same time, data could be lost.
It is also possible that this project didn’t finish closing properly the last time it was used or was copied from another machine while in use.
Choose ‘Make a Copy’ to make a copy of the project and work from that, or ‘Continue’ if you are certain that this project cannot already be open anywhere else.)”

I made a copy of course, and I press “continue”. The latter never stop the rainbow-cursor from turning&turning.

Can’t wait to hear from you,
Massi
[/quote]

18

Same problem here.

ANd I just paid for the upgrade…

ggggrrrrr…

19

This thread is a year and a half old. You’ll need to give more information about your setup.

Mark